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That happens so many times Derkins. Warranties (many, but not all,) are often not worth the paper they are written on. Car buyers often forget or are ignorant of, the Stautory Warranty which exists when buying a used car.It is the Sellers (Dealer) resonsbibility to correct matters at his expense if the problems appears within the first 6 months of purchase. It is free. A good Indy however, is worth his weight in gold and will often apply preventive maintenance, so as to minimise potential problems. Make a point of reading on a regular basis "honestjohn.co.uk" and you will realise how fortunate we are to drive a Lexus , which although not infallible, goes wrong far less often than other makes of car. Oh, and welcome to the Club! Regards John

So I have experienced my first and so far only issue with the F. I had a pre-cat lamda sensor fail... to be specific P0031 H02S Heater Control Circuit Low Bank 1 Sensor 1 So dashboard does its Christmas tree impressions on the M6, I pull into the services to check it out, I must be one of few who carry a code reader in the car with me at all times just for interest. Find it to be the lambda so no great drama carry on my merry way. First call of course to Lexus to give them the specifics and to get a quote. £580 inc. VAT fitted. So after I picked myself up off the floor started searching and this is what I found. Denso/Toyota to a specific replacement, part no. DOX-0504 and can be found here: http://www.denso-am.co.uk/e-catalogue/ and can be bought here: http://www.sparkplugs.co.uk/denso-direct-fit-lambda-sensor-dox-0504 for £94 although I have a motorfactors around the corner from me and I paid the same through them. Looked at fitting myself but without a ramp I wouldnt recommend it. Being the pre-cat its pretty well hidden, you can get at the sensor to remove easy enough but the connection to the loom is very well hidden. I took it to a local independant and watched the process. For information at this stage Bank 1 is the bank of cylinders containing cylinder no.1 and is the passenger side of the car (I didnt know this). So they had to remove the small heat shield that sits behind the manifold to be able to get a hand up to unclip the sensor from the loom, The extension they had to use to take off this shield must have been near on 2ft. After its removal everything was easy, took them 45 mins all told. That 45 mins plus the fault clear and re-check was £60. All in a grand total of £154. Where Lexus get their figures for service items I have no idea. Anyway, this may well be useful to others in the future. Happy motoring LOC members....

Not difficult to reach 45 mpg (UK)

I rang three dealers and my local dealer matched the lowest price. I'm due two major services and one minor (car had 1st service on purchase) and this is costing £34 a month over 29 months plus an initial payment. When you see what they actually do in the full services (very comprehensive) I think its probably worth it. The future cost is fixed at the quote they give you and will only rise if VAT goes up.

Why not take out a Lexus Servcie Plan and pay it monthly Dennis? Regards John

Yes there are warranty terms on the Leaf, where it gurantees the number of active cells over 5 years. So you can have a variying number of actives cells ver that 5 year decaying at various rates depending on hot far you drive, how you charge it and how long youleave it between a drive. A situation can occurswhere someone who has a car coming up to 5 yar old actuvey wants his cells t die to a certain level so he can get his/her cr battery replaced under warranty, otherwise the active cells will drop to probably usuable usage hence less range ( needed for longer driving), though probably ideal still for daily short commutes.. The point I'm making is, why should drivers have to worry about their batteries in terms of how it they charged ( fast or trcike, 100% or 80%), how long car is left between drives, which basically points towards everythig relating to range anxiety.. Studies on Li-ion batteries show that charging to 80% prolongs life of battery over 100% charging, and that times periods of non usage also affects battery life. I'm not sure if Tesla have minimised all to acceptable levels or have had to put in more batteries cels/packs to compensate, or pushed to the limit.

I don't have a desire to fly off from every standstill, it's just occasionally when there's an opportunity to exploit and when you floor the throttle, that's when some of the shortfalls kick in. As I said, I appreciate the engineering, application and purpose of the CVT gearbox in the hybrid IS. Don't get me wrong, the IS300h is a lovely bit of kit - refined, luxurious, inexpensive to run/tax/insure and very smooth. Personally, the novelty of the IS has worn off rather too quickly. You're absolutely correct - priorities, requirements and attitudes change, otherwise we'll all be driving around in the same generic box.

The problem with the CVT drone is that you shouldn't be hearing it most of the time since the purpose of the ISh or the GSh isn't flooring the gas pedal. That's what irks me about some professional reviews, they race a IS300H for example on the race track and say it's average since you can't race with it. Every car has a particular purpose, if you want the fastest car available with a great throttle response, there are much better cars suited for that purpose. Even in a Prius or a CT you should rarely hear the drone if you drive it normally, and both have a lot less power and refinement than the IS. The IS is more about a relaxed drive with some sports aspirations, the CVT is perfect for that purpose. My point is, if you want to fly off from every standstill, you probably bought the wrong car.

I have no idea what those strips are, but they are nothing to do with the luggage box cover support. Here are the instructions on the base of the luggage box: (pic 1) Then there's the support bar: (pic 2) And it fits like this: (pic 3) As I mentioned, you could fashion a support bar from a piece of wood.

http://www.lexus.co.uk/owners/servicing-and-maintenance/#ServicingYourLexus

Front looks like a basking shark, bit strange IMO

I was told after the MOT the other day that when it gets to 5 years old they then do a yearly/10K warranty on the batteries and then yearly again until 100K. Obviously this happens after they do a hybrid health check which is £59. Somewhat confused about it but that's what the service dept told me as it was advertised on there tv screen in the showroom. I believe the price of the battery pack is circa £2600 Sorry forgot to add that I didn't get my CT through a dealer. . Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I had this the other night. My headlights were on and I was leaving a dark car park and yet people still didn't know I was there. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

need to find a video of that scaring the bejesus outa people lol

Excellent, its like stealth mode!! best thing about getting a new car thats been out a few years is people know all the answers to the newbie questions lol. been driving 20yrs + but the hybrid side of things certainly brings a new element to ownership.

Well if mine has it then it isn't working cos I've had several people walk out in front of me in car parks then turn round and jump when they see me sneaking up!

OK its all done! Wow what a fiddly job. I bought two UK based low mileage prius batterys, stripped them and extracted all 56 battery cells, as well as the fans, relay boards and voltage sensor modules. I even grabbed the copper 'double washers' as they were pristine, and the 56x2 nuts, which were cleaner and had a slightly larger contact surface area, although still 8mm. Whole job done in 7 hours, in situ, IE, the battery never left the boot/trunk. The battery graphic on the central screen no longer goes from 7 green bars, to one blue, in a matter of minutes. It stays put, and slowly goes up and up. Early days, but i can get higher speeds in just electric mode, plus MPG has already risen. I can sell the remaining 16 battery cells, as well as the fans, relays etc. The two prius battery units came to £900 all in. Far better value than getting a gs450h unit with 130k for £1800. I can make half the £900 back with the remaining bits i sell, plus i am sure i will save on MPG overall, and it was quite satisfying, considering i know of no mechanic, lexus main stealer included, who would actually change the cells themselves. Although they could all change the entire unit, which is a 2 hour job. Plenty of pics if required. Car is a 2007 gs450h SE-L with 324k miles. Yes, you read that correct!

I used to live in Kingsbury, and it sounds like you might be close, so based on my experience of the roads around there, I wouldn't bother since it will probably get scratched again soon.

I think the "shaking" is a feature of the headlamps as mine does this as well on good potholes, or if I knock the headlamp units with my hand. John

I think we were probably expecting a colour coded hinged cap of some kind, which in all honesty would look a bit better than a piece of old kitchen foil like mine has.

Carry spare Key Fob battery in wallet. Then use THAT to prise open the cover........Oh, no, you could just change the battery.....(-"

Much better to have this protection, as the one on my old LS430, the lock was so stuck.... that when the battery was flat, it would not unlock. I had to literally quad soak with with WD40 and 5 hours later it worked! :( ... The trick via the light in the boot did not work for me :(

I did mine on the driver's door when the battery was out, but I needed to manually lock it. I find the simple plastic cover rather nice. You can get any of them out with a nail file or small electrical screwdriver. A simple finger nail can sometimes work.

Doesn't that seem odd that a car as well built as a Lexus needs to have a piece prised off?

I just usemy finger nails...a small voin suvh as give penny piece ...or a thin screw driver....try it. Not difficult. But as Crusemark says,you will never really need to!

Goodyear Efficient Grip on mine, excellent tyres and under £100 fitted from Black Circles. Avons on my estate car, also excellent.

Hi I have 4 x Michelin Primacy 3s on my 2005 LS430 (245/45R18 100W). I would highly recommend these tyres, much much quieter than the Dunlop sports that were on the car previously. From time to time Michelin have offers of fuel vouchers if you buy a number of their tyres.